STMicroelectronics

STMicroelectronics is one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies. Offering one of the industry’s broadest product portfolios, ST serves customers across the spectrum of electronics applications with innovative semiconductor solutions by leveraging its vast array of technologies, design expertise and combination of intellectual property portfolio, strategic partnerships and manufacturing strength. Website

"ST people come into the program with a strong knowledge of and commitment to the customer. However, the program experience forces people to think outside their own area and across the customer and ST's global organization. For me this is the biggest benefit from the program: the alignment and commitment of people.

When business is as uncertain as it is today, the ability of the supplier to react quickly and flexibly to changing customer need is essential. At the same time you need to have very clear and strong goals shared by the customer to provide the focus for teams on both sides. If you don't have that, I think you are dead in six months."

Guy MonierFormer Program Manager and Head of the Institute of Sales and MarketingSTMicroelectronics

Challenges

Coordinating all ST functions that interface with some part of a customer's global organization and/or have the internal know-how and capability to influence value created for customers.

Providing the leadership of a diverse, globally dispersed group. This type of global leadership needs not only skills in influencing team members, function heads and senior executives but also capability in strategic thinking and planning as well as a deep understanding of customers' strategic issues and ST's capabilities to address them.

Solution

First, a series of preperatory conference calls were held between ST University, Global Partners and the account sponsors. During these calls, the overall objectives were set and the teams were confirmed. The teams were both global and cross-functional and had up to 15 members, including people from the regional side who interact locally with customers and understand local issues and opportunities. From the product side, team members understood ST's products and solutions currently applied at the accounts and those that could be applied to address customers' global and local challenges and opportunities.

Next, a series of conference calls were held with the teams. During these calls, the cross-functional teams defined the needs for relevant information and outlined issues and opportunities with the customer. An account planning guide was used to collect and organize all the information coming from multiple countries.

As many as 50 individual items were raised during the conference calls. Items were synthesized and organized, then used during the workshop to drive planning and discussion.

Face-to-Face Workshops

At the start of each workshop, it quickly became apparent that although all team members were executing what they believed to be the right strategy, they have not been able to align their actions with others, resulting in an uneven and sub-optimized approach to working with the account on a global scale. With that understanding, a challenging 'stretch' vision for the account development and key objectives were defined and agreed to by all team members.

After common visions and objectives were established, one of the first workshop activities was building a map of customers' complex global organizations and identifying key issues for each of its parts. One of the typical outcomes from this activity was an understanding and appreciation that existing structures and historical relations with customers were inadequate and outdated, as the size and complexity of customers' organizations may have changed through growth, especially growth through acquisitions.

Next, using the data from the planning conference calls, the participants worked in subgroups to build alternative strategies for each of the key objectives established earlier. Then for each strategy a set of tactics, actions with milestones and metrics were created. Each team member was assigned responsibilities for implementation.

Follow-up and Final Reviews

The objectives, strategies, actions and milestones were collected, reviewed and updated by participants on a regular basis.

Throughout the next several months, the ST teams used their account plans as it conducted a series of conference calls to track and measure implementation.

Benefits

20-80% increases in share of customer.

3-4x increases in revenue from customers.

New relationship structures that connect peers to peers, including top-level executives.

Global teamwork enhanced internally for ST as well as customers' global and local organizations.

Trust with customers taken to a new level of partnership, evidenced by things such as shared websites, collaborative planning and co-development activities.

New opportunities created for both ST and its customers by finding innovative ways to create value for each other in terms of new products and services and also better ways to work together on shared processes such as supply chain and product development.

"The power of the program was to bring together the unique perspective of each member of the team on how to create value for the customer and for ST. We could drive more value for the customer and more business for ST by pooling our collective knowledge and coordinating our approach."